As the young Minister traveled through the rugged country near England's
Cheddar Gorge, the clouds burst and torrential sheets of rain pummelled the earth. The weary traveler was able to find shelter standing under a rocky overhang. There, protected from the buffeting wind and rain, Augustus Toplady conceived one of
the most popular hymns ever written, Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee."

In March, 1776 Toplady published the hymn as part of an article in The Gospel
Magazine, which he edited. He wrote that just as England could never pay her
national debt, so man could never by his own merits satisfy the justice of God.
In the middle of the article he burst into song, printing for the first time
the hymn "Rock of Ages", which so ably describes Christ, the Rock of Ages, as the remedy for all our sin.